East End cowboy… Blue (1968)

 

Where’s he lookin’ off to?

South… Mexico I guess…

Well, I reckon he feels they’re more his people now.

He can’t go back now, he killed one of them, he’s nowhere to go…

Terence Stamp has passed away and it’s the end of an era with one of the faces of the sixties leaving us as well as one of our finest character actors. You could still see Terry in the streets of Soho and, whilst the last time I saw him he was looking his age, he was still so cool, still so handsome. I saw him introduce films at the BFI and he was as urbane and eloquent as you’d expect. His period post Zod was probably my favourite with films like The Hit, The Limey, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert but he was in some of the finest films of the ‘60s including Far from the Madding Crowd to Poor Cow. For this post I wanted to watch a film I hadn’t seen before and it turns out to be far from his finest although it does feature cattle… so some continuity with the Ken Loach work!

Some might say that the Stepney lad playing a cowboy is an odd choice in subject and tone with this film coming directly after Loach’s social-realist Poor Cow (1967) and, before that, Far from the Madding Crowd (1967) to be followed by two fine Italian arthouse efforts with Fellini’s superb Toby Dammit – easily the most successful of the segments of the Poe trilogy Spirits of the Dead (discussed elsewhere on here) – and Pasolini’s Teorema (1968). The great film reviewer Roger Ebert certainly thought so but he found many faults giving the film just one star, saying “Blue is not just a bad movie, but a painfully inept one.”

Joanna Pettet

The casting makes more sense when you understand that Canadian director, Silvio Narizzano, was based in the UK and had directed Georgy Girl one of the signature films of the Swinging London Terry was so much a part of. The aim with Blue was to create something like and arthouse western with Stamp’s great depth the anchor for the whole production. Now, circumspection and all-action tend to be an ill fit and the film does struggle to meld everything together into a satisfying whole with the action at the beginning and the end jarring with the more cerebral middle section in which Doc Morton (Karl Malden) and his daughter Joanne (Joanna Pettet) look after the badly injured Azul (Terence Stamp) who was part of a Mexican incursion across the border.

The film is set in 1880 and starts with Mexican bandit and revolutionary Ortega (Ricardo Montalbán, who is a charming as ever and certainly has the range for the brief in hand) who is raging against the Americans on principle as well as the restriction of his trade as a bandit. We see a troop of soldiers riding into a small Mexican town following, one affixing a poster on a wall offering a 2,000 Pesos reward for Ortega for “crimes political and civil against the Republic of Mexico”. A lone figure with piercing blue eyes, watches the soldier from under the brim of his hat as the others are greeted by the women working at the local bar.  

Ricardo Montalbán and friend

Once inside, the figure springs up onto his horse and summons Ortegas outlaws in to humiliate the soldiers. Ortega picks up one of the women and they ride off but not before Azul picks up the troops’ commander and kissing him full on the mouth shoots him leaving even the outlaws silenced by his brutality.

Obviously we have serious questions about this behaviour but before that from the outset you are left admiring the cinematography from DOC Stanley Cortez who makes the most of Panavision anamorphic – this film would look stunning in the cinema! There is a real feeling of place and Cortez captures the terrifying beauty of the Nevada deserts, flats and valleys where most of the film was made. A far cry from Carnaby Street for Narizzano.

The gang make their way back to Ortega’s lair and there’s a daft party atmosphere mixing free loving with the kidnapped prostitute and Ortega’s forgetfulness about which mother was which of his three sons – “who can remember?” He counts the blue-eyed gringo as his son although his other sons are less impressed and a fight breaks out between the American and Xavier (Carlos East). Ortega stops the fight and goes outside for a deep conversation with his right-hand man, Carlos (Joe De Santis) and resolves to take the fight to the rich Yankees across the river in Texas although his revolutionary aims are not so clear as his desire to rob and steal.

The next day Xavier and Azul lead the way as they compete once again to be the first across the wide river that separates the countries and we switch to the quite, civilized community they are on a course to meet. Here we find the good Doctor, an urbane and educated man and his daughter, strong-willed, modern and beautiful. Malden and Pettet are both very good in these roles, the formers natural authority and steadfast morality and the latter’s intensity and presence – she was such a feature of US 70s TV growing up – they both were – but she is always an impressive actor.

Joanne leaves the town gathering to collect something from home only just before the invaders arrive to disrupt, steal and, in one case kill the locals. She has her own nightmare waiting at home as she is ambushed by another of Ortega’s sons, Manuel (Stathis Giallelis) who chases her through her homestead before attempting to rape her. A shot rings out and Joanne looks up to see Azul… As the Americans get organised and fight back, another of Ortega’s sons is killed and Azul is badly wounded. He makes his way the Morton’s homestead and Joanne recognising him as her saviour, they decide to help him recover.

Karl Malden and Joanna Pettet

Now the film’s most philosophical and naturalistic section takes place as the Mortons try to fix the mute and aggressive Azul who only gradually is won over by the Doctor’s kindness and his daughter’s beauty and steadfast good nature. All three do well in these moments and we have to believe that Azul has been brought up too much of an outlaw and not so much “another kind of Mexican” – he’s loyal to his adopted father and is a trained killer who, as we saw at the start, relishes the kill.

There’s no love lost between the American setters and the Mexican ones and whilst Blue stays to help the Mortons on their farm, he is viewed with suspicion by parts of the local community. He’s challenged by one of the locals but holds himself in… he might feel that he doesn’t belong but soon his relationship with Joanne deepens and he reveals what happened to his family. They settled in Mexico when he was five and lived together peaceably until the war with USA and Mexico (after the former annexed Texas in 1895).

Soon Ortega discovers where his adopted Azul is and challenges him only for Blue to overcome him… now there’s a bigger confrontation promised as the bandit takes his men and vows to lay waste to the settlers. It’s time to take sides and prepare for the true test…

Dusty Verdict: Blue doesn’t quite make sense but it is a compelling watch having enough of the old western style to pull you in along with enough of the romance and brotherly love to make you believe that folk can just get on together in the end, despite all the history. As I’ve said it looks fabulous and the score from Manos Hatzidakis is stirring indeed. The film has scale, a cast of many hundreds especially during the film’s epic finale when a battle for the soul of the land and the main participants is joined and the river runs red.

Seeing Terry handling his horse far better than his accent it must be said, he is a convincing leading man and action hero in ways his very English subtleties might not always have suggested. One of the faces of our time and one of the finest actors too, he shall be missed.

 

There’s an interesting addendum as the production of Blue was used as background for the Film Fade In featuring Burt Reynolds and Barbara Loden, which is co-produced by Narizzano. The two films were shot consecutively although Fade In wasn’t released until 1973. It’s fascinating to see the scenes featuring the scenes behind as it were and the cast and crew make guest appearances with Joanna/Joanne all sixties hip stepping off a plane in bright miniskirt and boots.

Mr Stamp is seen in a sleek e-Type driving towards the location, he stops for some petrol and the pump assistant asks if John Wayne is going to be in the movie, “nah, not this one…” Terry replies and no, it wouldn’t have been a good idea anyway. This isn’t Duke’s kind of western.

Terry meets Joanna, down on the border and a dirty old river runs right through it.

Rio Grande Sunset

Terry and Jo

88 years later... Joanna steps off a plane

... and Terry gets his car filled with petrol.

Such a great looking film!

Pete, Dud and Raquel... Badazzled (1967)

Brilliant on stage and ground-breaking on TV, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore couldn’t quite project their impressive array of talent onto the big screen. Bedazzled is a period piece of course and gets lots of points for style and substance but is a little too uneven to stand the test of time. That’s ungenerous of me as when we saw it as teenagers on the small screen the playground was full of it the next day including some of the best one liners, especially Cook’s remark that The Almighty was omni-present whereas he was just highly manoeuvrable.

The discipline of filmmaking would work against the improvisational talents of Cook especially and it’s interesting that Moore would later become so much more successful as a film star; more diligent, used to long hours of practice and discipline as an organ scholar and pianist and, it has to be said, palpably a better actor. There was always more of the devil in Peter and his eyes always betray more mischief and uncertainty than Dudley’s, so much more lost in the role is he. Moore would gain a Golden Globe and Oscar nomination for Arthur in 1981 whilst Cook followed a patchy acting career but contributed greatly to this nation’s sanity, founding Private Eye and his comically-vicious genius inspiring generations of comedians.

Together they were always dynamite and they are still winning here aided by old Footlights colleague Eleanor Bron as Margaret Spencer, the object of Moore’s character Stanley Moon’s desire. Bron and Cook had been in the Cambridge Footlights review of 1959, The Last Laugh and she was the first woman in the group. Well, there’s progress Cambridge! Here she provides the depth of character and technique to play variations on Margaret as each of Stanley’s chosen scenarios work out and she’s the perfect straight-woman with more than enough comic nuance to give the boys a run for their money.

Stanley has been driven to the edge after long years working as a short-order chef at a Wimpy fast-food restaurant during which time he has developed a romantic interest in waitress Margaret. It’s a love that dare not, indeed cannot, speak its name and at the film’s beginning he runs out of the café after Margaret and is unable to articulate his feelings once again as she jumps into a trendy bubble car* with a handsome man and drives off laughing. It’s the cinema of humiliation and Cooke just loves humiliating his in some ways more talented other half but Dudley can not only act it, he can take it and it wouldn’t work any other way.

Stanley goes home and attempts to hang himself only for the pipe he’s relying on to break sending him crashing to the floor as water sprays all over the pre-war wallpaper in his one bedroomed hell. He hears a voice who announces himself as George Spiggot, the most prosaic name for The Fallen One, Beelzebub, Lucifer… (Cook). Stanley soon finds a surprising amount of sympathy from The Devil for his plight as what seems like a good deal is offered: seven wishes and seven chances to secure the affection of the loveable Margaret in exchange for the paltry offering of his soul.

The deal with The Devil seem water-tight but Stanley soon finds that the details have plenty of devil in them and that no matter what kind of scenario he wishes to spark the romance with Margaret, there’s always a fatal flaw… Margaret is passionate but for poetry and not his person, he is even less effective transformed into a bee, he gains sisterly love but no more as a nun in a convent and then even when deeply in love the two cannot consummate their affection because of their guilt over the innocent and thoroughly decent man she has married (George again…).

Along the way, Stanley meets George’s Seven Deadly Sins with the standouts being Raquel Welch as Lilian Lust who – naturally tempts in George’s spare room – and then there’s the great Barry Humphries (another Footlights fellow) as Envy, relishing every nasty expression of human frailty. Perhaps we could have seen more of these Deadly Sins… especially as this is the last place you’d expect to find Raquel Welch on the rise?

 

Dusty Verdict: How can you not like this film even with the odd gripes, it’s of its time and a representation of two of our most talented comics in their prime in London when it was swinging. It’s also a call to follow your heart and to be true to yourself as all retellings of Faust would be, The Devil is in your betrayal of yourself as much as the arbitrary rules of man and deity… something Cook was always against. In the end both Pete and Dud followed their stars and we love them both for it. Anti the Establishment from which they came, rebels and rude boys at their best who left a lasting legacy and much love in their wake.

Directed by Stanley Donen (Singing in the Rain and many more!) in Panavision format, the film is very well made and offers a precious glimpse of the London as well as the unforgettable sight of the Order of Saint Beryl, or the Leaping Beryllians, glorifying their founder by jumping in unison on trampolines. Cook wrote the script and Moore wrote the music which is jazzy with psychedelic elements – some lovely use of phasing – with the repeated main theme sticking in your head. It’s quite collectable and well worth seeking out on its own.

 

 

* The Isetta was an Italian-designed microcar created in 1953 by the Italian firm Iso SpA, and subsequently built under license in a number of different countries, including the United Kingdom.

Too many crooks... Payroll (1961)

There was something in the air in the early 60s… not just the great train robbery but the emergence of a new breed of glamorous British gangs some of whom are still being lionised with some cosy cliches which reflected their appeal. “Hard but fair”, “they only killed their own…”, “you was either a boxer or a gangster…” or, as my former colleague, niece to certain East-end twins used to say her gran threaten “if you don’t behave I’ll set your uncles on you!” There is no doubt that criminality is part of the British way of life and we are fascinated with everyone who gets away.

Directed with forensic almost documentary detail by Sydney Hayers, Payroll was released two years before the big job on the railways and proved that life always imitates art even as that of artful dodgers. Organised crime was a burgeoning sub-genre with other capers such as Cash on Demand (1961), The Frightened City (1961) and Strongroom (1962), which has been attracting some serious attention after its restoration was screened at the BFI and then Il Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna. It seem that Brit Noir/Neo-Noir is due a reappraisal maybe even The Big Job (1965) a comedy reflecting the nation’s continuing interest in these post-war self-improvement schemes.

Here we start off with what looks like an attempted robbery but is just a demonstration of a supposedly impenetrable security van which even comes with a loud hailer called for assistance. Naturally the firm behind the new vehicle are convinced of its efficacy and the driver, Harry Parker (William Peacock) sees advancement in the big new contract to deliver payroll money, telling his wife Jackie (Billie Whitelaw) over breakfast that it’s impregnable.

The film is very good in showing the depth of all the characters and that’s what adds to the noirish feel when betrayal, paranoia and in-fighting kick in.

There’s a gang monitoring the payroll deliveries and led by Johnny Mellors played rather convincingly against type by Michael Craig who constantly rubs up against the edgy scouser Blackie (Tom Bell, on fine form speaking his native dialect!). Bert Langridge (Barry Keegan) is their technician and more level-headed whilst Monty (a febrile, greasy Kenneth Griffith… nerves on a stick!) worries about everything and everyone.

The gang have a man on the inside, Dennis Pearson played with anxious exhaustion by Barry Keegan, and he passes them photocopies of the van’s design helping them devise a way to counter its armour. Improbably he’s married to a beautiful wife, Katie (Françoise Prévost) who’s just about had enough of his promises of a better life… we’re left to fill in the gaps of their relationship.

The heist takes place and, whilst Harry may have felt impervious, the gang sandwich the van between two trucks with girders strapped to them and repeatedly ram the vehicle killing him outright. It’s an audacious and unsettling moment and Bert too is badly injured as the robbers gain access to the interior and then dozens of people run from a nearby factory to try and help with one man clinging to the back of the getaway car… everyday bravery that you could say reflected the more conscientious and dutifully aligned post-war Britain.

Now the film takes a turn as getting what you want isn’t necessarily as good as the boys imagined especially with the collateral damage… this extends to one of their own as they discover when they reach their hide-away in the depths of Victorian Newcastle as Bert is unable to follow on due to the extent of his injuries. Johnny knows there’s only one option, Blackie is less sure and Monty’s about to lose his head whilst all around just about keep theirs. Bert dies before Johnny has to finish him and the gang disperse… now’s the time to wait it out.

But as the police become involved and the tragedy is revealed, Katie senses a kindred spirit in Johnny whilst a distraught Jackie shows she has more grit than any of the robbers. She senses a betrayal at the security firm – how did the gang get to know the van’s weaknesses, someone had to have told them. The rest of the film plays out a tense psychological thriller as the pressure builds on the guilty and the innocent.

Dusty Verdict: Payroll is a mostly fast moving and enjoyable ride which hits harder than its budget might have allowed thanks to some fine performances. Billie Whitelaw catches the eye most in her shift from dutiful housewife to determined pursuer of her husband’s killer and the police procedural is well observed and believable. In comparison Françoise Prévost is a bit of a closed book, we’re not sure of her motivations either towards her feckless husband or Johnny… but her acting is giving far less of a clue than Whitelaw’s.

One of the film’s delights is its Newcastle locations – it’s always fascinating seeing the backgrounds in period films, but it’s usually London so it’s grand to see the sights of one of the finest cities of the north, the bridges over the Tyne, the grimy Victorian riverside in the winding soot-stained bricks below.